Georgia faces adversity on, off field

Monday

ATHENS - When Georgia and Colorado last played on Sept. 23, 2006, the Bulldogs were the defending Southeastern Conference champions, a top-10 team that ran its record to 4-0 that day.

The win improved Mark Richt's overall record at Georgia to 56-13 in five-plus seasons during which he led the Bulldogs to two SEC titles.

The Bulldogs' record since then under Richt is 35-17, including 1-3 this year heading into Saturday's game at Colorado.

In the aftermath of a 24-12 loss at Mississippi State on Saturday that gave the Bulldogs three straight defeats for the first time in 20 years, even some longtime Richt supporters are wondering whether his time with the Bulldogs should be nearing its end.

"There's no doubt that it's the toughest bit of adversity that we've faced since I've been here," coach Mark Richt said.

Richt was referring not just to on-the-field performance, but also several players arrested off the field.

On the day after Georgia slid to 0-3 in the SEC for the first time since 1993, Richt had to deal with the arrest of a 10th player this year.

Linebacker Demetre Baker was quickly dismissed from the team after his early morning arrest Sunday on DUI and two other charges.

"The bottom line is, we're 0-3 in the league," Richt said. "We've never been there. We have had enough issues off the field that it's been a big distraction and sad for our young men and for our program and our university and our fans and everybody else."

Georgia, losers of seven of its last nine conference games, knows it won't get another SEC loss Saturday when it goes out of conference to play Colorado (2-1), which is coming off a bye week.

The Bulldogs are only a third of the way through the season, but already have more losses this year than they did in 2002, '04 and '07 under Richt, and as many losses as they did in '03, '05 and '08.

"The good news is we know what success looks like, we know what it takes to have success," Richt said. "If this was my first or second year of coaching at a place that had any kind of success at all, we'd be like, 'Well, what do we do now?'

"It would be very difficult to deal with. We know what it takes to do it right, so we know we're not far off. We know that if we stay the course, it's going to be our best chance to get back on track in a positive way."

Georgia lost to Mississippi State for the first time since 1974 a week after losing to Arkansas for the first time since 1993.

Starting with a 45-19 loss at Tennessee on Oct. 10, 2009, Georgia has gone 6-6 in its last 12 games.

"Our goal is to stay together as a team and as a staff and then stay the course - make changes that need to be made, but if you sit there and try to make a wholesale change midstream then you're asking for more trouble," Richt said. "We're not going to do that. We're going to keep believing in each other and in our players and keep banging away."

For Georgia to extend its nation-leading streak of consecutive seasons of eight wins or more to 14 would take a big turnaround.

With eight regular season games to go this season, Georgia needs to:

n Go 5-3 just to finish the regular season with a .500 record at 6-6 and become bowl eligible.

n Win five games to avoid its first losing season since going 5-6 in 1996.

n Win three of its final five SEC games to avoid its first losing record in the conference since 1996. Georgia still has conference games left with Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, No. 7 Florida and No. 10 Auburn.

"I promise you this - there's not all kind of teams around the country lining up saying, 'Let's get Georgia on the schedule,' " Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen, a former Florida offensive coordinator, said Sunday. "I just think it shows the depth of our conference from top to bottom that a team the caliber of Georgia is still struggling at this point in the season."

Notes

Richt was uncertain about the status for receiver Kris Durham this week, but said he was hopeful that he will play. Durham said Saturday night that he stretched a nerve in his neck in the Mississippi State loss. "Sometimes you're able to play the next week, sometimes you're not," Richt said. "I don't know how severe it is or how he felt today as compared to last night." ... Richt said he has talked to offensive coordinator Mike Bobo last season and this season about possibly returning to the coaches' box on the press box level to call plays. "He feels real comfortable on the ground," Richt said. "The information that we're getting from upstairs has been very accurate. I don't think it's had an effect on how things are going."

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